Finance Summer Intern Review

My role was a Summer Intern in Internal Audit. This involved working on one of the audits that the team was completing at the time and having the opportunity to assess processes, with some of the issues that I identified fed back to the auditees to be actioned.
Day-to-day, I worked on both design and operational testing for the audit. These are the first and second stages of testing specific processes. I also had the opportunity to organise volunteering and training for the Internal Audit team.
I also did a lot with the Emerging Talent Team at Centrica during my time here. I had the opportunity to hear from senior leaders, do team building with other interns, and complete a presentation at the end of my internship on what I had done during my time here.
We were all encouraged to do volunteering during our time here. Therefore, I was able to take two days out of the office in order to travel to Windsor and Reading and do volunteering for local charities.

Yes, I was trusted from the beginning. The first couple of weeks were spent learning the audit processes and methodology. Then, I was given the responsibility of owning my own scope of the audit. This essentially means that I was independently testing a certain aspect of the team we were auditing. The issues that I identified were then included in the final report and fed back to the team.
A key part of my role was organising training. I was trusted to be the main point of contact for the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors to organise training for the team. I would then review my progress on this weekly with my manager and audit director.

I was really able to improve my presentation skills during my time with Centrica. From the start, we are encouraged to work in teams to do presentations to the other interns. Then, I had the opportunity to present twice during my time with the Internal Audit team. And finally, we were tasked with completing an end-of-internship presentation, giving an overview of our time here.
Therefore, I had plenty of opportunities to improve my verbal communication and presentation skills - a weak point of mine before the internship. From this, I have improved and can now say that I am a more confident presenter than I was before.

At the start of my internship, it was a busy period for my manager. But, he still made as much time for me as he could. He consistently gave me opportunities to develop and get involved with the audit I was working on. He would regularly check in on me to make sure I understood the task and to answer any questions that I had.
I was also provided support from other members of the team, not just my line manager. Everyone in the team was incredibly welcoming and supportive, and would be there to have a quick meeting or answer any questions I had.
I also received regular feedback too. I had a mid-placement review with my manager, before a final end of placement review. But I also had regular meetings to assess my performance and areas for development throughout.

Centrica has strong values of collaboration and care and it is evident that everyone lives by these values. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and helpful, and it was clear that they wanted the best for us and were invested in our development, despite being with the company for such a short period of time.
Many teams would sit together at lunch and go for walks in the meadow behind the office. And even when working from home, it is so easy to hop on a call. No matter how busy someone is, they never rushed me off or treated me like an afterthought.

I really enjoyed my internship. Going into it, I was nervous, but after completing it, I am so glad I did it. It has helped me grow not only professionally but personally too. There's a common misconception that interns are not trusted or given as much responsibility as others - I think that can sometimes be true, but it's not true at Centrica.
I was trusted from the beginning and treated like a permanent member of the team, despite only being there for 9 weeks. I would definitely be happy to come back to Centrica. The culture and the people who work in the company make it so great.

Yes